P 541 

.5645 

Copy 1 



Instructor Literature Series— No» 226 



Story of Illinois 




By George W. Smith, M. A. 



PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY 
F. A. OWEN PUB. CO. - Dansville, N. Y. 

HALL & McCREARY - Chicago, 111. 



Monograph 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES 

Five- Cent Classics and Supplementary Readers 

A N especially fine series of little books containinf? material needed for Sup- 
^~^ plementary Reading and Study. Classified and g'raded. Large type for 
lower grades. A supply of these book'> will greatly enrich your school work. 

Mk^ This list is constancy being added to. If a substantial number of books are to be 
ordered, or if other titles than those shoivn hete are desired, send for latest list. 



FIRST YEAR 
Fables and Myths 

6 FairyStoriesof theMoon. — iWc^MiV^ 

27 ^sop's Fables— Part l—Reiter 

28 ^sop's Fables— Part ll—Reiler 

29 Indian Myihs— Bush 
140 Nursery Tales — Taylor 

174 Sun Myths — Reiter 

175 Norse lyegends, I — Reiter 
Nature 

1 Little Plant People— Part l~Chase 

2 Little Plant People— Part 11— Chase 
30 Story of a Sunbeam — Miller 

31 Kitty Mittens and Her Friends— Oai^' 
History 

32 Patriotic Stories (Story of the Flag, 

Story of Washington, etc.)— Reiter 
Literature 
230 Rhyme and Jingle Reader for Beginners 

SECOND YEAR 
Fables and Myths 

33 Stories from Andersen- Tar/or 

34 Stories from Grimm — Taylor 

36 Little Red Riding HooA— Reiter 

37 Jack and the Beanstalk — Reiter 

38 Adventures of a Brownie — Reiter 
i76 Norse Legends, II — Reiter 
Nature 

3 Little Workers (Animal Stories)— C/mi^ 

39 Little Wood Friends — Mayne 

40 Wings and Stings — Halifax 

41 Story of Wool — Mayne 

42 Bird Stories from the Foets—follie 
History and Biography 

43 Story of the Mayflower — McCabe 

45 Bojdiood of Washington — Reiter 

164 The Little Brown Baby and Other Babies 

165 Gemila, the Child of the Desert and 

Some of Her Sisters 

166 Louise on the Rhine and in Her New 

Home. (Nos. 164, i6s, 166 are "■Seven 
Little Sister^" by fane Andre7vs) 

204 Boyhood^©!" L^ncoXn-Reiter 

Literature " . I 

152 Child's G^r/ltft oi Yerses>—Stevevso7i 

206 Picture Stfidy Stories for Little Children 
— Cranston 

220 Story of the Christ Child — Hushower 

THIRD YEAR 
Fables and Myths 

46 Puss in Boots and Cinderella— ^^i7^y 

47 Greek Myths — Klinzensmith 

102 Thumbelina and Dream Stories — Reiter 
146 Sleeping Beauty and Ollior Stories 
177 Legends of the Rhineland— ■/l/cCa^<' 
Nature 
49 Buds, Stems and Fruits — Mayne 

51 Story ci I'^lax — Mayne 

52 Story of Glass — Hanson 



Little Watcidn.p 



53 Adventures of 

— May Tie 

135 Little Peop.e of the Hills (Dry Air and 

Dry Soil Plants)— C/fa^^ 
203 Little Plant People of the Waterwa3's - 

CJiase 
133 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard— Part 

I. Story of Tea and the Teacup 

137 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard — Part 

II. Story of Sugar, Coffee anciSalt. 
13S Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard— Pari 

III. Story of Rice, Currants and Hont-y 
History and Biography 

4 Story of Washington — Reiter 
7 Story of Longfellow — McCabe 
21 Story of the Pilgrims — Powers 
44 Famous Early Americans (Smith, Stan- 
dish, Penn) — Bush 

54 Storj^ of Columbus— Tl/cCc^^ 

55 Story o{ Whittier— McCabe 

57 vStory of Louisa M. Alcott— Bush 

58 Story of Alice and Phoebe Cary—McFee 

59 Story of the Boston Tea Party -McCabe 
132 Story of Franklin— 7v7r/5 

60 Children of the Northland— i?7<5A 

62 Childrenof the South Lands, I (Florida, 
Cuba, Puerto Rico)— A/cFee 

63 Children of the South Lands, 11 (Africa, 
Hawaii, The Philippines) — McFee 

64 Child I,ife in the Colonies— I (New 

Amsterdam ) — Baker 

65 Child Life in the Colonies— II (Pennsyl- 

vania)— ^^/^^^ 

66 Child Life in the Colonies— lII(Virgin- 

ia)—Z^'a-^^y 

68 Stories of the Revolution— I (Ethan 

Allen and the Green Mountain Boys) 

69 Stories of the Revolution — II (Around 

Philadelphia)— ^l/rc'iz^^ 

70 Stories of the Revolution— III (Marion, 

the Swamp Fox) — McCabe 

71 Selections from Hiawatha (For 3rd, 4th 

and 5th Grades) 
167 Famous Artists, I— Landseer and Bou- 

heur. 
Literature 

67 Story of Robinson Crusoe— ^7^.?^ 

72 Bow-Wow and Mew-Mew — Craik 

233 Poems Worth Knowing Book 1- Primary 

FOURTH YEAR 
Nalure 

7'i Story of Coal — McKane 

';6 Story of Wheat— //«///Vz;ir 

77 Story of Cotton — Btozvn 

78 Stories of the Backwoods— i'?<?z7^:r 

134 Conquests of Little Plant People— Oa^^ 

136 Peeps into Bird Nooks, 1— McFee 
181 Stories of the Stars — McFee 

205 Eyes and No Eyes and the Three Giants 
Continued on iJiird cover 



July, 1912 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



I ." 



VA'^ 



Bj; Qedy W. Smitk M. A. 

Department of History, State Normal University, Carbondale 
Author of "A Student's History of Illinois." 




PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY : 

F. A. OWEN PUB. CO., Dansville, N. V: 



HALL & MCCREARY, CHICAGO, ILL. 



Copyright, 1912, by F. A. Owen Publishing Co. 










gCI.A325056 



Story of Illinois 




Starved Rock 

The French in the New World 

French fishermen frequented the shores of the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence as early as 1504. They had no thought of 
making explorations or settlements. They knew little 
about the land features of the New World, and the little 
knowledge they had created scarcely a ripple of interest 
in France. 

The coming to the St. Lawrence of James Cartier in 
1534 was the first real sign of French interest in America. 
He was an explorer rather than a founder of empire. 
His experiment in attempting to plant a colony at Mon- 
treal in the winter of 1540-41 proved a failure, and little 
more is heard of the French in Canada till the coming, in 
1608, of Samuel Champlain, a man of great vigor of mind 
and body, deep insight into human nature and of pure 
and lofty purposes. 



4 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

Champlain had previously visited the New World ; once 
in company with DeMont in the year 1604, when the latter 
had planted a colony on the Bay of Fundy, at the mouth 
of the St. Croix river. Champlain was a restless soul 
and his activity led him to become fur trader, explorer 
or colonizer as the occasion seemed to require. He 
founded Quebec in the fall of 1608 and when the spring 
of 1609 arrived he found only eight alive out of twenty- 
eight of his colonists. He formed an alliance with the 
Canadian Indians, the deadly enemies of the Iroquois who 
lived in what is now New York state. This hatred be- 
tween the two great families of Indians prevented the 
French from reaching the Illinois country through New 
York and along the Ohio river. 

Champlain brought to New France a number of priests, 
who were stationed along the St. Lawrence and around 
the great lakes. These missionary points immediately 
became the centers of interest for the French traders, 
who now began a systematic traffic in furs and peltries. 

After the death of Champlain, which occurred in 1635, 
a bit of diplomacy was needed to hold the Indians about 
the lakes to the cause of the French king. A congress 
was held at Sault Ste. Marie in the year 1670. At this 
congress the Indians around the lakes pledged anew their 
loyalty to the great King Louis XIV, who told them 
they should be the children of his especial care. 

Priests and traders had by 1670 visited nearly every 
tribe as far west as the head of Lake Superior. From 
these people wonderful stories had reached the governor 
of Canada at Quebec. Even the court at Versailles had 
heard of the interior of the new continent. Count Fron- 
tenac was sent as governor of New France in the fall of 
1672. He began at once to prosecute to a successful end 
an expedition into the interior which his predecessor, 
Courcelle, had set on foot. 

The persons selected for this hazardous undertaking 
were Louis Joliet and Father Pere Marquette. The 
former was to represent the government and the latter 
the church. No better selections could have been made. 
These men by nature and by training were well fitted for 
this great mission. Joliet was a business man of rare 
experience gained from contact with the natives. He 
was fearless, loyal to his king and ambitious to extend 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 5 

his king's dominions in the New World. Marquette had 
long contemplated a visit to the famous Illinois Indians 
and their country. 

Joliet was dispatched to Mackinaw under orders from 
Count Frontenac. He arrived December 8, 1672, and 
made his mission known to Father Marquette, who says : 

The day of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, whom I 
had always invoked * * * to obtain of God the grace to be able 
to visit the nations on the River Mississippi, was identically that 
on which M. Jollyet arrived with orders of the Counte de Fron- 
tenac, our Governor, and M. Talon, our intendant, to make this 
discovery with me. I was the more enraptured at the good news, 
as I saw my designs on the point of being accomplished, and my- 
self in the happy necessity of exposing my life for the salvation 
of all these nations, and particularly for the Illinois * * * who 
had earnestly entreated me to carry the word of God to their 
country. 

The preparations for the journey were very simple — 
five voyageurs, two canoes, dried beef and parched corn. 
All were eager for the journey. They rowed with a 
hearty good will, bouyed up by the contemplation of 
visions of beauty, wonder and wealth. 

The route lay along the west shore of Lake Michigan, 
up Green Bay, up Fox river, over the portage, down the 
Wisconsin, and out on the bosom of the great Father of 
Waters, June 17, 1672. It was a wonderful experience. 
The grandeur of the river, the scenery of the bluffs, hills 
and woodlands. The abundance of plant and animal life 
and the prospect of seeing the Illini — all conspired to 
render the day the most momentous in their lives. 

The journey down the river began with little or no 
delay. Marquette was thoughtful to record accurately 
the many things of interest — plants, fruits, animals, birds, 
the lay of the land and the character of the Indiar.s. 

Just above the present site of Alton they saw painted 
on the rocks the famous Piasa Bird. Marquette describes 
it as follows : 

As we coasted along rocks, frightful for their height and length, 
we saw two monsters painted on these rocks, which startled us 
at first, and on which the boldest Indian dare not gaze long. 
They are as large as a calf, with horns on the head like a deer, a 
frightful look, red eyes, bearded like a tiger, the face somewhat 
like a man's, the body covered with scales, and the tail so long 
that it twice makes the turn of the body, passing over the head 
and down between the legs and ending at last in a fish's tail. 
Green, red and a kind of black are the colors employed. On the 
whole, these two monsters are so well painted that we could not 



6 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

believe any Indian to have been the designer, as good painters 
in France would find it hard to do as well ; beside this, they are 
so high upon the rock that it is hard to get conveniently at them 
to paint them. This is pretty nearly the figure of these monsters 
as I drew it off. 




The Piasa Monster 

Grand Tower, a monster rock which rears its head in 
the Mississippi a few miles above the mouth of the Big 
Muddy river, was passed in safety, and on they go to the 
moutii of the Arkansas, Here they were counseled to 
return, and having all the information they sought they 
concluded to do so. 

From the mouth of the Illinois river they proceeded up 
that stream. They halted at the village of the Kaskaskia 
Indians, near the present city of LaSalle. Hei'e Marquette 
preached to the Indians and promised to return and tell 
them more about Jesus. They continued their return 
journey to Green Bay when they separated, Joliet to go 
to Quebec and Marquette to seek rest and regain his fail- 
ing health. 

The next fall, 1674, Marquette started on his promised 
return to Kaskaskia. He was compelled to remain at the 
Chicago portage on account of ill health till the spring of 
1675. He reached Kaskaskia and founded the first church 
in Illinois — the church of the Immaculate Conception. 
He remained but a fevy days, and on his return journey 
died at Ludington, Michigan. His body was interred by 
tender and loving hands, his bones being later buried in 
the mission church of St. Isnace at Mackinaw. 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 7 

Chevalier de La Salle, a native of old Rouen, Nor- 
mandy, and a man of vigor, conceived the idea of explor- 
ing the Mississippi and building a line of forts from its 
mouth, by way of the lakes, to Quebec. He visited 
France, was presented to the King, received a charter to 
the interior of the continent, collected craftsmen and ma- 
terials, formed the friendship of Henri de Tonti and re- 
turned to Fort Frontenac at the outlet of Lake Ontario. 
He built a ten-ton ship above the Niagara Falls and pro- 
ceeded to Mackinaw and Green Bay where he loaded it 
with furs and started it to his warehouses at Niagara. 
He never heard of it after that. 

La Salle now proceeded with a company of thirty-five 
or more by way of the St. Joseph river, the Kankakee 
portage, into the Illinois river, and halted at the Indian 
village of Kaskaskia. Here he found an abundance of 
corn for his little army of soldiers, carpenters, black- 
smiths, sawyers, priests and voyageurs. Just below the 
present Peoria Lake he halted again and after long con- 
ferences with the Indians concluded to spend the winter 
at that point. He built Fort Crevecoeur and in tlie 
spring of 1679 he returned to Fort Frontenac to replenish 
his supplies and to get some trace of his ship, the Griffin. 
Tonti was left in charge of La Salle's interests and told 
to build Fort St. Louis on Starved Rock. An Indian war 
dispersed La Salle's followers and he was obliged to 
gather men and supplies for another expedition. 

In January 1682, La Salle, Tonti and about thirty fol- 
lowers reached Fort Crevecoeur. Here they built boats 
for the journey to the mouth of the Mississippi River, 
which they reached in April. They erected the cross, 
raised the coat-of-arms of France, and read a proclama- 
tion declaring all the territory drained by the Mississippi, 
the territory of the King of France. 

This being done, they returned to Canada. La Salle 
finding much opposition to himself in Canada, conceived 
the idea of reaching the Illinois country through the 
mouth of the Mississippi, thus avoiding his enemies in 
New France. He went to France to perfect plans for this 
new venture. Tonti was to stay in the Illinois country, 
build Fort St. Louis and care for La Salle's interests until 
the latter's return by way of the Mississippi. 

La Salle met with favor at the French court. He re- 



8 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

turned to the Gulf of Mexico, but not being able to find 
the mouth of the river, was landed on the coast of Texas 
where he was later killed by one of his own men. Tonti 
remained loyal to his charge at Fort St. Louis till he 
heard of the death of La Salle. He had built up a great 
confederacy about Starved Rock. Indian tribes had re- 
ceived assignments of lands and had begun the cultiva- 
tion of the soil. No more romantic story could be told 
than the one of Fort St. Louis and Tonti's Confederacy. 

Tonti met with much opposition from the government 
in New France and worn out in body and spirit he de- 
parted for Biloxi in 1700. 

Old Kaskaskia 

Marquette founded the mission of the Immaculate Con- 
ception in 1675. Different priests ministered at that 
place till 1700. In the fall of that year the Kaskaskia 
Indians, the priests and a few French settlers conceived 
the idea of joining the French near the mouth of the 
Mississippi River. They took up their journey thither. 
The priest accompanied his flock, bringing the records 
and the sacred vessels of the mission. This priest was 
Father Marest. Father James Gravier seems also to have 
accompanied them. They passed Cahokia, a village of 
the Tamaroa Indians, situated a few miles below the 
present city of East St. Louis. Here Father Marest was 
taken ill and was left behind, Father Gravier taking his 
place with the tribe. 

A few miles above the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, 
at a great bend in the Mississippi, the Indians left that 
stream and crossing a short portage arrived at the Kas- 
kaskia. Here they stopped whether with the intention 
of later moving on down the Mississippi will never be 
known. At least they never moved from this place and 
the village of Kaskaskia became the first permanent 
settlement in Illinois. 

The records of the church are still preserved and have 
heretofore been in the keeping of the priest in charge, 
but it is reported they have been taken to St. Louis 
within recent years. The earliest date in these records 
is March 20, 1692. It records the baptism of an infant, 
Peter Aco by name. 



vSTORY OF ILLINOIS 9 

Thus was laid the foundations of a permanent village, 
on the west bank of the Kaskaskia a few miles above 
where that stream flowed into the Mississippi. It was 
for half a century the metropolis of the Mississippi valley 
and the center of fashion and power in Louisiana. To 
this village came Crozat in 1712, to whom the King had 
granted the entire country for a period of fifteen years. 
With him were many Frenchmen direct from the mother 
country. His dream of wealth was never realized and he 
resigned his charter and returned to France in 1717. 

The Great Western Company, the product of the brain 
of John Law, the great Scotch financier, was granted the 
province of Louisiana the same year Crozat returned it 
to the king. In 1718 there arrived at Kaskaskia Lieu- 
tenant Boisbriant, with a small detachment of French 
troops, to guard the interests of the Western Company 
and of the king. Boisbriant did not tarry long at Kaskas- 
kia, but selected a point some sixteen miles up the river 
from the present city of Chester where he built a fort 
which he named Fort Chartres. The fort was about half 
a mile from the Mississippi River, in the alluvial plain 
two or three miles from the bluffs which lay to the east- 
It was a wooden structure of the stockade form, enclosing 
space enough for barracks, magazines and warehouse for 
the company. To the east, at the foot of the bluffs, which 
here rise a hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above 
the bottom land, there sprang up the village of Prairie 
du Rocher; and near the fort a small village, New Char- 
tres, which depended upon the military station for its 
support. 

The fort was barely done when there arrived from 
France a very noted personage in the person of Phillipe 
Francois de Renault. He came as the representative of 
the Western Company, bringing a large body of miners, 
timbermen, and slaves. He came to develop the sup- 
posed mines of precious metals thought to be in the hills 
of Southern Illinois, which were to yield the wealth to 
enrich France and Frenchmen. He spread his miners 
and laborers over the Ozarks and began to dig, but with 
no return. After many months of fruitless endeavor he 
abandoned the search and secured a grant of land three 
miles wide and six miles long abutting on the Mississippi 
a mile or so above Fort Chartres. On this grant he built 



10 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



the village of St. Phillipe, settled his hundred slaves and 
began to farm on an extensive scale. This is the origin 
of slavery in Illinois. 

By 1730 there were six French villages in what we 
know as the American Bottom. They were, Kaskaskia, 
Prairie du Rocher, New Chartres, St. Phillipe, Cahokia 
and Prairie du Pont, a village just south of Cahokia. 
The American Bottom included all the alluvial plain be- 
tween the bluffs and the river and reaching from Chester 
to Alton. Its fertility is unsurpassed by any lands within 
t'le state. 




L;ist Days of Kaskaskia. 

As the town was disappearing in the Mississippi River. 

Kaskaskia was the most important of the six villages. 
It grew rapidly. It is a tradition that the Jesuits founded 
a college in the town as early as 1720, which prospered 
till the order was suppressed in 1764. The Indian life 
was merged into French life and the customs became 
those of French villagers. They were an easy going, 
happy, thriftless people; nothing disturbed their quiet 
ongoing. Wheat, corn and vegetables were raised, mills 
for grinding and sawing were erected and many grants 
of land were made by the representatives of the French 
government. 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 11 



Illinois in the French and Indian War 

At the close of King George's war in 1748, the French 
began active preparations to hold New France and Louis- 
iana and to possess the valley of the Ohio. To this end 
the forts reaching from Quebec to the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi were strengthened, and plans made to build 
others in the Ohio valley. The conflict of interests be- 
tween the English and French about the "forks of the 
Ohio" is familiar to all. 

Orders came from France to rebuild Fort Chartres. 
The first fort had been of wood, the new one was to be 
of stone. It was 500 by 450 feet, the walls being three 
feet thick and fifteen feet high, with port holes for small 
arms and cannon. The entrance gate was an artistic 
affair of cut stone above which was a sort of balcony, in 
which officers and ladies watched maneuvers of the sol- 
diers on the parade ground which lay out before the fort. 
Within the walls was a space of about four acres. There 
were numerous buildings — the commandant's house, 
barracks for soldiers, guard house with dungeon cells, 
a bakery, magazines for stores, servants' quarters and 
stables for officers' horses. There were two wells, both 
of which were walled neatly with broken stone and both 
of which remain as they were a hundred and fifty years 
ago. In the corners or bastions of the fort were elevated 
places upon which the gunners were to operate the can- 
non. In one of the bastions was the powder magazine 
which remains today in very good condition. The walls 
and the buildings have disappeared but their foundations 
may easily^be traced. 

This fort was erected at a cost of $1,000,000 and to it 
came the flower of the French army. Officers of rank, 
ladies of high social standing and servants in large num- 
bers found their homes within the walls of this great fort 
in the wilderness. Cannon bristled from every angle of 
the walls ; the powder magazine was well stocked ; the 
commissary department was abundantly supplied; and 
everything betokened a powerful and extravagant nation. 

The social life of the fort was keyed to a high pitch. 
Kaskaskia, not far away, was a city of two thousand in- 
habitants. Joyous life reigned in this western metropo- 



12 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



lis. Parisian styles and gowns were plentiful. Social 
functions were frequent. The official and military life 
of Fort Chartres and the civil life of Cahokia and Kas- 
kaskia mingled freely together. Weddings were of fre- 
quent occurrence. They were of course celebrated in 
the church. The invited guests usually included the en- 
tire official life, military and civil, it mattered not how 
lowly the contracting parties were in social standing. 
T-he names of Rocheblave and Neyon de Villiers as wit- 




Remains of Old Fort Chartres.— The Powder Magazine. 

nesses to marriages are common in the parish records. 
As many as ten to fifteen persons of rank often signed 
the certificate of marriage. 

When Washington approached Fort Du Quesne and 
was met by the French a short distance from the forks of 
the Ohio, a battle ensued in which Jumonville de Villiers, 
the French commander, was killed. Washington retreated 
and took refuge in Fort Necessity. Now when Neyon de 
Villiers at Fort Chartres heard that his brother had been 
slain he proceeded in all haste with a detachment of regu- 
lars and militia from Fort Chartres to avenge his brother's 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 13 

death. Neyon de Villiers joined a third brother, Coulon 
de Villiers, from Canada, and with twelve hundred troops 
they besieged "Monsieur Washenston" in his little log 
fort. Washington capitulated July 4, 1774, and returned 
to Virginia. Thus Illinois has the distinction of furnish- 
ing a part of the army which captured the ' 'Father of 
his Country. ' ' 

The struggle between England and France for control m 
America was an unequal one, and upon the fall of Quebec 
in September, 1759, negotiations looking toward peace 
were entered upon. In 1763 the treaty was signed. The 
proclamation issued by General Gage, the commander of 
the English forces in America, gave the French in Illinois 
the privilege of leaving the Illinois country with their 
personal effects or of remaining and taking the oath of 
allegiance to the English government. It was a sad time 
about Kaskaskia and the other French villages. The 
Lilies of France were lowered and the English ensign 
flung to the breeze. The French villagers sadly took 
their departure and everywhere the joyous French life 
disappeared. St. Phillipe had but one inhabitant left, 
and he v/as too poor to get away. 

The coming of the British soldiers to take possession 
of the Illinois country was delayed till 1765 on account of 
the opposition of Pontiac, who refused to believe that the 
French had been permanently ejected from the country. 
The British commanders made Fort Chartres headquarters 
until 1772, when high water changed the course of the 
Mississippi and threatened the destruction of the fort. 
The garrison was hastily removed to Kaskaskia where 
they occupied the abandoned Jesuits' buildings. Here 
they remained till the outbreak of the Revolution when 
they were ordered to Canada, and the British interests in 
the Illinois country were left in the hands of Philip Fran- 
cois de Rastel, Chevalier de Rocheblave, a Frenchman 
greatly attached to the British cause. 

The French occupancy of the Illinois country through 
a period of nearly seventy years was a period of great 
prosperity in the American Bottom. The Indian life 
which predominated in the first part of the period had 
gradually disappeared and everywhere there were signs 
of a slowly growing civilization. The town of Kaskaskia 
was regularly laid out as a city. The blocks were large 



14 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

and the lots were roomy. The cottages were neatly built 
of posts set upright in the ground or upon a foundation. 
These posts were close together, with their cracks filled 
with grasses and mud. The roof was thatched of the 
grasses which grew in abundance in the nearby low 
places. In later years these cottages were neatly built 
and as neatly painted. There were many colors, and the 
effect was very striking. The yards were well kept. 
There were flower beds and fruit trees in abundance. 
Well tended vegetable gardens occupied the lot in the 
rear of the cottage, and a picket fence surrounded each 
home. Attached to each village was a common field 
w^here each villager had assigned him a small quantity of 
land. Then there was the commons which belonged to 
each village, w^here firewood and pasture were free to 
each cottager. The village life was an easy one of leisure 
and pleasure. 



Illinois in the Revolutionary Struggle 

By the Proclamation of 1763, King George III set apart 
all territory west of the Alleghanies as the "Indian Coun- 
try." No more settlements were to be made west of the 
mountains. In spite of these orders, however, the hardy 
Virginians, Carolinians, and Georgians began crossing 
over the mountains and by 1775 there were scores of 
settlers in what is now West Virginia, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee. 

When the rupture came betvv^een the colonists and the 
mother country, the Indians of the Illinois country be- 
came a menace to the setters east of the Ohio river. In- 
cursions were made into Kentucky by bloodthirsty bands 
of Indians from Indiana and Illinois. George Rogers 
Clark, one of the Kentucky settlers, conceived the plan 
of capturing Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes, and De- 
troit — all held by British garrisons or by French militia. 

Clark was made a colonel in the Virginia militia, pro- 
vided with munitions of war, money, and soldiers, and 
ordered to attack these British posts. His soldiers were 
gathered mostly in Virginia and Kentucky, though there 
were some from other sections. Clark came from Vir- 
ginia by way of Pittsburg for a part of his supplies and 
from there down the Ohio to Louisville. There he stop- 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 15 

ped and organized his little army of less than two hun- 
dred men and when all was in readiness he proceeded 
down the Ohio, landing at old Fort Massac. This historic 
fort was unoccupied and it seems to have attracted but 
little attention. 

Colonel Clark hid his boats in the mouth of a small 
stream just above the fort and prepared to march over- 
land to Kaskaskia. Clark's army was small in numbers 
but large in patriotism. They wore their homespun 
clothing, coonskin caps, a leather belt which held a dan- 
gerous long-bladed knife from which the Indians called 
them "Long Knives. " Many wore moccasins or home- 
made shoes of their own tanned leather. Their long, 
small bore rifles were deadly weapons in the hands of the 
"Long Knives, " as they never pulled the trigger till they 
had taken a bead on an object. They felt their mission 
of war upon the British posts was entirely justifiable in 
the light of the certainty that Indian attacks upon the 
Kentucky settlers were instigated by the British com- 
manders at the British posts. 

The overland journey led northwest through Massac 
county, into Johnson, through Williamson, Jackson, and 
into Randolph. The route has been pretty definitely 
settled. While in Williamson county their guides lost 
their way and General Clark feared treachery, but they 
soon regained their bearings and the march continued. 

On reaching the vicinity of Kaskaskia the little army 
crossed the river to the west bank about a mile above the 
town. Here they waited till ten or eleven o'clock and 
then marched south upon the sleeping village. It was 
the 4th of July, 1778. The commander of the post, Cheva- 
lier de Rocheblave, made a noisy opposition, for which 
he was put in irons. 

On the morrow, the poor, terror-stricken villagers beg- 
ged the privilege of holding a farewell service in the 
church. This was granted and later in the morning, 
through the help of the priest. Father Gibault, quiet was 
restored. The inhabitants all took the oath of allegiance 
to Virginia. On the afternoon an expedition was planned 
to capture Cahokia. This was easily accomplished and 
the "Long Knives" felt abundantly rewarded for their 
many days of privations and danger. 

The next thing for General Clark was the capture of 



16 STURY OF ILLINOIS 

Vincennes. Father Gibault and an embassy repaired to 
that post and in the absence of the British commander 
and garrison, took possession of the fort and received 
the oath of allegiance of the villagers. The embassy re- 
turned with the good news and General Clark felt his 
work had been highly successful. But word came to 
Hamilton in Canada that Vincennes was in the hands of 
the Americans and he immediately set out for its recap- 




Gen. George Rogers Clark 

ture. This was easily done. General Clark now saw 
that he must capture Hamilton or Hamilton would capture 
him. 

It was now February 1779, and all was hurry to march 
against Vincennes. About one-third of Clark's army 
were French militia. A boat was sent by the river route 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 17 

with supplies and cannon, but the little army marched' 
overland. The route was northeast through the present 
counties of Randolph, Perry, Washington, Jefferson, 
Marion, Clay, Richland and Lawrence. At one place they 
were obliged to build rafts to ferry their provision and 
ammunition across the overflowed lands. Their food 
gave out before they reached the Wabash and they suf- 
fered greatly from hunger and fatigue. They crossed the 
Wabash at the present site of St. Francisville, and marched 
northward through the overflowed lands a distance of six 
or eight miles. This was the most trying part of their 
journey. They waded in ice-cold water up to their 
waists, they languished on the dry ground or clung 
while in the water to the lower limbs of the branches of 
trees. Some gruel made from deer meat and corn meal 
saved the life of many a brave soul. 

They reached the vicinity of the town and Clark, not 
wishing to take the villagers completely by surprise, sent 
a note to the inhabitants warning them of his coming. 
The fort was bombarded through the night and on the 
next day, after two or three conferences. Colonel Hamil- 
ton surrendered to General Clark. The provisions and 
ammunition in the fort came in good season for Clark's 
army. After making disposition of the prisoners and 
providing for the care of the fort, Clark returned to 
Kaskaskia. 

Word concerning the fall of Kaskaskia and Cahokia 
having reached the Virginia legislature in the fall of 1778, 
a vote of thanks was tendered General Clark and his men 
as follows : 

IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES 

Monday, the 23d Nov. 1778. 
Whereas, authentic information has been received that Lieu- 
tenant Colonel George Rogers Clark, with a body of Virginia 
militia, has reduced the British posts in the western part of this 
commonwealth on the river Mississippi and its branches, where- 
by great advantage may accrue to the common cause of America, 
as well as to this commonwealth in particular : 

Resolved, That the thanks of this house are justly due to the 
said Colonel Clark and the brave officers and men under his 
command, for their extraordinary resolution and perseverance in 
so hazardous an enterprise, and for their important services to 
their country. 

Attest: E. Randolph, 

C. H. D. 



18 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

About the same time a measure was enacted creating 
the county of Illinois, Virginia, which should include all 
territory northwest of the Ohio. The Governor was au- 
thorized to appoint a lieutenant commandant who should 
exercise civil and military authority. Governor Patrick 
Henry appointed Colonel John Todd, a Kentuckian who 
at that time was a judge of one of the courts in Kentucky. 
Todd received his instruction from Governor Henry. 
They were recorded in an ordinary blank book which 
Todd used for a record book in his office. 

Todd gave attention first to the establishing of the 
courts, militia, and land claims. Order was restored in 
the several villages; legitimate trade and commerce en- 
couraged ; and the settlements placed on the road to pros- 
perity. Colonel Todd returned to Kentucky, where he 
was killed in a battle with the Indians. 

Clark was anxious, following the capture of Vincennes, 
to attack Detroit, but after building Fort Jefferson, just 
below Cairo on the Kentucky side, he was dismissed from 
the service and spent the remainder of his days on an 
estate near Louisville, Kentucky, where he died feeling 
that truly "republics are ungrateful." 



Illinois Prior to Statehood 

To secure the ratification of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion in 1781, the several states which held claims to west- 
ern lands under old grants or otherwise, ceded their 
lands to the general government. These cessions took 
place in the years following 1781. In 1787 the Congress 
passed the famous Ordinance of 1787. This was a code 
of laws which should govern the settlers in the territory 
northwest of the Ohio River. It was drawn up by the 
confederation congress during the summer of 1787. Na- 
than Dane was chairman of the committee which drafted 
it, but the Rev. Manasseh Cutler of Boston was consulted 
as to some of its provisions. 

This Ordinance provided that civil government in the 
Northwest Territory should be administered by a gov- 
ernor and three judges. These four sitting as a legisla- 
ture could adopt laws from any of the older states and 
then enforce obedience to them. Military organizations 
were under the control of the governor, who was com- 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 19 

mander-in-chief. Slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
except as a punishment for crimes whereof the person 
shall have been convicted, should not exist within the 
said territory northwest of the Ohio river. 

The Rev. Manasseh Cutler planted a colony at the 
mouth of the Muskingum river in the summer of 1788. 
This place was called Marietta and to it Governor St. Clair 
and the three judges came and laid off the first county, 
namely : Washington, and made Marietta the county seat. 
They proceeded down the Ohio and laid off Hamilton 
county with Cincinnati as the county seat. From there 
they went to Kaskaskia where they laid off St. Clair 
county with Cahokia as the seat of justice, and lastly to 
Vincennes where they organized Knox county with Vin- 
cennes as the county seat. 

There was little well-organized civil government. 
There were county officers but they gave little attention 
to their official duties. St. Clair's time was taken up 
with contests with the Indians, and the government suf- 
fered from want of oversight. Population grew however, 
and in 1800 Indiana Territory was separated from the 
Northwest Territory. General William Henry Harrison 
became the governor of the Indiana Territory. Vin- 
cennes was the new capital. The population grew and 
the people of the west half began the agitation for a 
separation of Illinois from Indiana Territory. This was 
finally accomplished in 1809. Illinois Territory included 
what is now Illinois and Wisconsin. 

The capital of the new Territory of Illinois was Kas- 
kaskia. The governor was Ninian Edwards, and the 
secretary was Nathaniel Pope. Governor Edwards and 
the secretary and judges took up their official duties at 
Kaskaskia and the social and business interests of the 
once famous French capital were revived. 

In 1811 Governor Harrison fought the battle of Tippe- 
canoe, in which some Illinois people took part, one being 
killed — Captain Isaac White. In 1812 the war between 
the United States and Great Britain was under v/ay. The 
Indians in Illinois sympathized with the British. General 
Hull surrendered Detroit, and the little band of United 
States troops as well as the few civilians at Fort Dear- 
born were in great danger. Captain Heald was counseled 
to abandon the place. He hesitated, but finally decided 



20 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



to do so. An agreement was made with Indians in the 
vicinity of the fort that Captain Heald and his troops 
should be permitted to depart for Fort Wayne in safety — 
an escort of 500 Indians to accompany them. 

On the morning of August 15, 1812, the little band of 
seventy-five United States troops, some militiamen, and 
a dozen or so of civilians started south along the lake 
shore. They had gone but a mile or so when they were 
surrounded by bloodthirsty Indians and in a pitched 
battle twenty-six regulars, twelve militiamen, two wo- 
men, -and twelve children were massacred. The rest of 
the little band surrendered and were taken back to the 
stockade and thence scattered among the several tribes 




Old Fort Dearborn. 

Erected in 1804, on the present site of Chicago. 

Many of them were eventually ransomed. This massacre 
and other depredations upon the settlers aroused the peo- 
ple in the more thickly settled portions of the south end 
of the state. Governor Edwards was active in the de- 
fense of his people. Scores of block houses and stock- 
ades were built and occupied. These were generally 
built of logs just as we build a log house except the upper 
story projected over the lower part four or five feet on 
all four sides. Stockades were built by setting timbers 
upright in a ditch or trench and making the pieces so 
close together that the cracks were very small. These 
stockades often enclosed an acre or more. 
The general government organized a regiment of troops 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



21 



known as Rangers. They were commanded by Colonel 
William Russell of Kentucky. Illinois furnished several 
companies in this regiment. The Illinois Rangers rode 
their own horses, furnished their own clothing, guns and 
ammunition. They did loyal service in defending the 
settled portion of Illinois from the savages further to the 
north. Many Rangers came into prominence in the state 
in later years. 

Fort Russell, a large stock- 
ade and blockhouses, was buUt 
a mile or more to the north- 
west of Edwardsville. It was 
defended with brass cannon 
from old Fort Chartres. Gov- 
ernor Edwards, as command- 
er-in-chief of the military 
forces of the state, maintained 
headquarters here and tradi- 
tion has it that the most exact- 
ing social and military eti- 
quette prevailed. After the 
war was over and people forgot 
their military experiences, the 
old brass cannon was sold for 
junk — so it is said. There 
were several individuals and 
parts of families who were victims 
but we shall not give them here. 

Following the restoration of peace in 1815 immigra- 
tion increased, population grew, new counties were or- 
ganized, and in 1818 the territorial legislature applied for 
admission into the union. Nathaniel P.ope was the ter- 
ritorial delegate and secured the enabling act with- a 
number of very favorable provisions. The constitutional 
convention met in Kaskaskia on August 3, 1818. There 
were at that time fifteen counties, sending thirty-three 
delegates to the convention. Among the noted men in 
the convention were Jesse B. Thomas, John Messenger, 
James Lemen, Jr., Elias Kent Kane, Leonard White, 
Conrad Will and Thomas Kirkpatrick. The constitution 
was framed and sent to congress where it was accepted 
December 3, 1818, and Illinois became a sovereign State. 




ni 



Stockade and Blockhouses 

one or two instances 
of Indian barbarity, 



22 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 




Illinois Under the First Constitution 

The first governor under the constitution was Shadrach 
Bond, an early comer to the Illinois country. The legis- 
lature met in Kaskaskia in January, 1819, and proceeded 
to organize the new government under the constitution. 
That document 
provided that 
"neither slavery 
nor involuntary 
servitude shall 
hereafter be in- 
troduced into 
this state." But 
the old French 
slaves were al- 
ready here and 
some free blacks. 

To meet what 
seemed to be a 
great need, a 
Black Code was 
enacted which 
remained upon 
the statute books 
for nearly half a century. A few provisions are given 
in substance : 

No black or mulatto person shall settle in the state un- 
less he has a certificate of his freedom. 

The certificate must be recorded with the clerk of the 
court. 

No person should free slaves in Illinois unless he gave 
bond for their good behavior. 

No person could hire a negro to work unless the negro 
had a certificate of his freedom. 

Negroes without certificates of freedom were subject 
to arrest and to be sold into slavery. 

Negro servants could be whipped by consent of a justice 
of the peace, etc., etc. 

The legislature at its first session passed a law provid- 
ing for the removal of the capital of the state. This 
provided that it should be located on the Kaskaskia, casl: 



Old State House in Kaskaskia. 

The State probably never owned a capitol building 
in Kaskaskia, but rented rooms for use ot the Territor- 
ial and State I'^gislatures. The above building was 
known as the Old State House. It has fallen into the 
river. 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



23 



of the third principal meridian, and that it should remain 
there at least twenty years. 

Vandalia, the new capital, was laid off on a grant of 
four square miles of land which the government gen- 
erously gave the state for that purpose. A crude capitol 
building was erected, a few cabins arose in the wilder- 
ness, and in December 1820, the legislature convened in 
the new seat of government. This legislature enacted a 
banking law which created a State Bank. The charter 




Capitol at Vandalia. 

The first capitol at Vandalia was a small wooden structure two stories high. 
It burned December 9, 1823. and another buildint? was erected at a cost of about 
S15,000 This was torn down in 1836 and the above building erected. It now 
serves Fayette county as a county court house. 

was for ten years and at the end of that time, 1831, the 
state had to borrow $100,000 to redeem the outstanding 
bills which had been issued. 

In 1822, the people chose Edward Coles as governor. 
He was a Virginian by birth and had been personally 
associated with Madison, Monroe, and Jefferson. He was 
bitterly opposed to slavery, having freed about twenty of 



24 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

his slaves on the way down the Ohio. In his message to 
the legislature he suggested the freeing of the old French 
slaves in Illinois. This brought on a fight in the general 
assembly for a law calling a state convention to revise 
the constitution so as to admit slavery, just as did Ken- 
tucky and Missouri. 

The slavery interests won in ordering an election in 
which the people should vote for or against a convention. 
The fight was long and bitter. It lasted from April 1822, 




General LaFayette. 

As he appeared at the time of his visit to Kaskaskia and Shawneetown. 
He was then 63 years old. 

to August 1824. The people who wished to preserve the 
state a free state went vigorously into the canvas fully 
understanding the difficulty of the situation. There were 
brave hearts in those early days that shrank not from the 
heat of the conflict. Morris Birkbeck of Albion, an Eng- 
lishman who, with George Flower, had founded the Eng- 
lish Prairie settlement and had laid off the town of Albion, 
was in the forefront of the struggle against slavery. His 
work was chiefly through the columns of the papers of 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



25 



those times, though he always expressed himself in pub- 
lic with great clearness and earnestness. Morris Birk- 
beck was the most striking figure in the state prior to 
the martyrdom of Lovejoy. 

Edward Coles spent his salary for the four years — 
$4,000 — in furthering the cause of freedom. A third hero 
was the Rev. John M. Peck of Rock Spring, St, Clair 
county. He rode over the entire settled portion of the 




Hotel in Shawneetown Where General La Fayette Was Banqueted. 

state preaching the gospel of freedom. He was a power 
for righteousness. There were other self-sacrificing men 
whose names and work ought not to be forgotten. The 
result justified all the sacrifice that the people had made. 
The call for a convention was defeated and Illinois re- 
mained in theory, at least, a free state. 

In the last half of Governor Coles' term, Illinois was 
honored by a visit from General Lafayette. He was the 
guest of the nation and planned to visit each state in the 
Union. At that time there were twenty-five states. He 
arrived at Kaskaskia on Saturday, April 30, 1825. He 
was enthusiastically welcomed by the English speaking 
people, but the French inhabitants were wild with delight 



26 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

and even the Indians camped about Kaskaskia for several 
days prior to his coming. The old hotel where he was 
entertained stood for many, many years; an object of ven- 
eration by all who chanced to hear this story of the visit 
of one of the world's great men. From Kaskaskia the 
distinguished guest went up the Ohio. He stopped at 
Shawneetown and was given a royal welcome. After 
spending a few hours in this town, he passed on up the 
Ohio to Pittsburg. 

The settlers were filling up the state pretty rapidly. 
In the region of Springfield, Jacksonville, and west to the 
Mississippi, there were many localities fairly well settled. 
The lead mines about Galena had brought a great many 
people to the northwest corner of the state. The coming 
of these people brought on trouble with the Indians. 
Although the Indians were under treaty to give up the 
lands east of the Mississippi River, they were loath to do 
so. This produced the Black Hawk war in 1832. Black 
Hawk had gone west of the river as he had agreed to do, 
but in the spring of 1832 he crossed to the east side and 
began to assume a warlike attitude. Governor Reynolds, 
who had done service as a Ranger in 1812, was prompt 
to call out the militia and in conjunction with the United 
States troops under General Atkinson the Indians were 
driven into Wisconsin where they were also attacked by 
militia, and after several small battles and great suffering 
of both whites and Indians, Black Hawk was driven west 
to the Mississippi, at a place where the Bad Axe River or 
Creek flows into that stream. Here the Indians were 
surrounded and in their desperation, between the river 
and the oncoming army, in the battle which followed 
were nearly all killed. Black Hawk became a state pris- 
oner and traveled extensively in the East. 

In 1836 the fever of internal improvement reached Illi- 
nois and the General Assembly mapped out a system of 
railroads, canals and other forms of internal improve- 
ment which the state undertook to carry out. There was 
not a dollar in the treasury for such improvements, but 
bonds were sold to the amount of ten or twelve million 
dollars. The work was begun, but the great financial 
crash of 1837 throughout the United States prevented the 
sale of bonds, the money already secured was unprofit- 
ably spent, and by 1840 the policy of the state was re- 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 



27 



versed. The debt eventually reached twenty million 
dollars, and the only thing realized out of all this enor- 
mous expenditure was twenty-five miles of railroad from 
Meredosia, on the Illinois River, to Jacksonville. This 
was the first steam road in the state. 

Illinois has much history of which she is justly proud. 
But there is at least one dark blot upon the record. This 
is the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy. This man was a 
martyr to free speech and free press. He edited a paper 
in Alton called the Alton Observer. He was outspoken 




The Lovejoy Monument, Alton. 

on the slavery question. The pro-slavery people de- 
stroyed three printing presses, and upon the arrival of 
the fourth one he and some friends decided to defend it, 
though they knew it would be at the risk of their lives. 
Sure enough, on the night of November 7, 1837, a mob 
surrounded the building where the fourth press was 
stored and before midnight had killed Lovejoy. The 
press was broken to pieces — the fourth one destroyed. 
Owen Lovejoy buried his brother and took a vow to 
spend the remainder of his days fighting slavery. A fine 
monument has been erected over his grave. 

Governor Thomas Ford was inaugurated in jJecember 
1842. There soon arose a very perplexing question for 



28 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

his administration. This was the Mormon problem. 
These people came into Illinois from Missouri in the 
spring of 1840. They built up the town of Nauvoo, in 
Hancock county. By 1842 there were 2,000 dwellings in 
the city and by 1844 there were 16,000 people. It is said 
they were driven from Missouri partly because they 
attacked slavery in the pulpit and in their press. 

The Mormons became entangled in the meshes of the 
political net of Illinois. They held the balance of power 
between the Whigs and the Democrats, and thus secured 
a charter from the legislature of the state for Nauvoo 
which enabled these peope to defy the power of the civil 
authority of the state. Great unrest prevailed in the 
western part of the state. Depredations of all kinds were 
laid at the door of the Mormons. They had in Nauvoo a 
well organized military force, with guns, ammunition and 
other equipment. The people rose in rebellion against 
the conditions which existed, the militia of the state was 
called out, Joseph Smith was induced to surrender himself 
to the civil authorities. He was lodged in the county 
jail for safe-keeping. Here he was murdered by a band 
of would-be peace-preservers. After this the Mormons 
concluded to abandon their city, and in the summer of 
1846 great wagon trains conveyed these people to the 
pre?«;ent site of Salt Lake City, where they have made the 
desert to blossom as the rose. 



Lincoln, Douglas and the Civil War 

John T. Stuart of Springfield was elected to congress 
on the Whig ticket in 1838. From that time on to 1854 
there was always a Whig in the representation in Con- 
gress from this state. But in the Thirty-fourth Congress 
which met in December, 1855, Republicans took the place 
of Whigs. In 1856 a convention of Republican editors 
was held in Decatur. This Editors' Convention called a 
Republican State Convention for the nomination of state 
officers. The convention was held in Bloomington that 
summer. Colonel Wm. Bissell was nominated as the 
Republican candidate for governor of Illinois. Bissell 
was elected and with him four Republican congressmen 
out of nine. The Republican party had come into being. 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 29 

At the Republican State Convention Abraham Lincoln, 
a former Whig but an ardent Anti-Nebraska man, deliv- 
ered a great speech, which from the fact that it was not 
taken down in shorthand nor was given from manuscript, 
has been called the "Lost Speech." This speech marked 
Lincoln as the greatest exponent of the doctrines of the 
new party. 

At the election of 1858 a legislature was to be chosen 
which would, in January 1859, elect a United States 
senator to take the place of Stephen A. Douglas, whose 
term would expire. Mr. Lincoln had served in the legis- 
lature and had served one term in congress, from 1847 to 
1849. He was now the chosen standard-bearer of the 
Republican party to oppose Mr. Douglas for re-election. 
The two men were evenly matched in oratorical ability. 
Douglas probably was the more fluent public speaker but 
Lincoln the more convincing debater. After both men 
had spoken in Chicago and in Springfield, which were in 
the second and sixth congressional districts, respectively, 
a series of joint debates was arranged for in the other 
seven congressional districts namely, at Ottawa, La Salle 
county, August 21 ; Freeport, Stephenson county, August 
27; Jonesboro, Union county, September 15; Charleston, 
Coles county, September 18; Galesburg, Knox county, 
October 7; Quincy, Adams county, October 13; Alton, 
Madison county, October 15. 

This series of debates is easily the greatest political 
event that ever occurred in Illinois. Thousands of people 
heard these intellectual giants and their fame spread over 
the entire country. When the legislature met in January, 

1859, Mr. Douglas was chosen to succeed himself, but Mr. 
Lincoln had won the presidency. 

Mr. Lincoln had become the logical candidate of the 
newly formed Republican party for the presidency in 

1860. In the national convention which met in Chicago 
in the summer of 1860, the East presented the names of 
William H. Seward of New York and Simon Cameron of 
Pennsylvania. The West presented the name of Abra- 
ham Lincoln of Illinois. Mr. Lincoln was nominated, 
with Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for vice president. 

Mr. Douglas was the logical candidate of the northern 
Democrats, but the southern Democrats were bitterly 
opposed to him because of the position he took in the 



30 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

debate with Mr. Lincoln. The national Democratic con- 
vention which met in Charleston, South Carolina, split 
into two factions, the main division naming Douglas for 
the presidency, and the other division putting forth John 
C. Breckenridge of Kentucky. 

The campaign was spectacular indeed. Great rallies 
were held, orators poured forth the doctrine of squatter 
sovereignty, or the mitigation of the curse of slavery. 
Mr. Lincoln was elected and secession became the prob- 
lem for the outgoing and incoming administrations. Fort 
Sumter was fired on and war was on. 

Illinois took a very active and honorable part in the 
Civil War. It furnished the president, Abraham Lincoln; 
the commander-in-chief of the armies, Ulysses S. Grant; 
and the greatest volunteer soldier the world has ever 
seen, John A. Logan. In addition Illinois furnished one 
of the greatest "war g6vernors, " Richard Yates, several 
major generals and hundreds of brave officers of lower 
grade, to say nothing of nearly 200,000 men in the ranks. 

In Congress in the early days of the conflict Illinois 
had such men as Elihu B. Washburn, Owen Lovejoy, 
John A. McClernand, John A. Logan; and later William 
Richardson, James C. Robinson, John T. Stuart, William 
R. Morrison and Shelby M. CuUom. 

Since the close of the Civil War in 1865, Illinois has 
been engaged in developing her wonderful resources, 
building great cities, perfecting her means of transporta- 
tion, advancing and enlarging her school facilities and 
building churches and homes. Politics has not been for- 
gotten, but men have given their energies to the material, 
mental, social, educational and religious elevation of our 
people. A brief mention of some of these and our story 
shall have been told. 



The Victories of Peace 

When the war closed and the proud commanders had 
led their victorious legions down Pennsylvania Avenue 
in the capital of the nation, they were disbanded to go to 
their homes and engage in the callings of civil life. The 
bitter hatred between the Union people and those who 
had sympathized with the secessionists soon died out. 
The doctrine advanced by many that the returned soldiers 



STORY OF ILLINOIS 31 

would prove to be a lawless and dangerous class of people 
was disproved by the lives of industry, sobriety and or- 
derly behavior which they led. The soldier boys it is 
true, had, for four years, been accustomed to the rough 
life of the camp, the march, the siege, the battle and the 
prison. But these varied experiences only served to 
deepen their appreciation of the tender associations of 
the home life. 

And so it proved when the Illinois boys came home 
from the war, they took up the problems of peace and no 
period in the history of the state has ever shown such 
strides as were made in the decades following their re- 
turn. Let us give a brief notice to this progress. 

Our forefathers settled in the timber or on the edges 
of the prairies. The broad prairie areas were the last 
portions of the state settled. As late as 1865 there were 
thousands of acres of virgin prairie soil in the central 
part of the state. Eventually these prairies were all put 
in cultivation and from these farms there now comes the 
food for millions of people. 

The census report of 1910 shows the population of 
Illinois to be 5,638,591. Approximate land area, 35,867,- 
520 acres. Value of all farm property $3,905,321,075. 
Value of domestic animals, $269,619,153. Total bushels 
of corn, 390,218,676. Oats, 150,386,074 bushels. Wheat 
37,830,732 bushels. Potatoes 12,166,091 bushels. Hay 
and forage, tons, 4,354,466. Truly Illinois is a great 
granary. 

But Illinois has 37,000 square miles of coal deposits. 
The coal lies in seams, varying from a few inches in 
thickness to fifteen feet. There are 845 mines in opera- 
tion, producing more than 50,000,000 tons annually, val- 
ued at $56,064,494. These mines employ 77,410 men- 
Railroad building began early in Illinois. The great 
prairies are pratically level and railroad construction pre- 
sented no serious problems for the engineers. Today the 
state is a net work of railroads. 

These three facts — the agricultural resources, the pres- 
ence of unlimited quantities of coal, and the easy means 
of transportation — are logically followed by two other 
important facts ; the development of manufacturing indus- 
tries, and the growth of cities. Chicago, the metropolis 
of the interior of the continent, has reached its import- 



SEP 5 1912 

32 STORY OF ILLINOIS 

ance in very recent years. Many important cities, though 
not large like the older eastern cities, have sprung up 
here and there. Peoria, East St. Louis, Cairo, Joliet, 
Ottawa, Bloomington, Springfield, Danville and scores 
of lesser but thriving cities dot the entire map of the 
state. 

The culture agencies have kept pace with the material 
development. The earliest settlers were from states 
where the free school system was unknown and schools 
were late coming into their recent importance. There 
were simple old-fashioned schools in the first quarter of 
the nineteenth century. The second quarter of the cen- 
tury made little or no advance on the first. The third 
witnessed the founding of a free school system and the 
last quarter of the last century has marked wonderful ad- 
vances in the material equipment, the character of the 
course of study and text books, as well as in the prepara- 
tion of teachers and the methods of instruction. 

The educational system is abreast of the times. Eight 
years are spent in the grades, four years in the high 
school, four years in college and from two to four in the 
technical schools. One year in the Normal schools fits 
for teaching if the young person has had college training. 
Agricultural courses are being inst:illed in the Normal 
schools and in some high schools. Manual training and 
domestic science, music and art are a part of all well 
organized city systems. 

And lastly, the religious and social life of the people is 
on a high plane. Every denomination is represented. 
Beautiful churches and an educated ministry are found in 
all the largest cities and even in towns and villages. 
These churches support home and foreign missionary 
work, and provide homes for orphans and for. aged people 
and endow hospitals for the care of the sick and unfortu- 
nate. The women of the state are famed for their zeal in 
all social, religious and charitable enterprises. Womens' 
clubs flourish in all the towns and cities, and federations 
of clubs exert no little influence in moulding public 
opinion and in shaping legislation. 

"Not without thy wondrous story, 
Illinois, Illinois." 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES - Continued. 



History and Biography 

5 Story oil,incoln-.Reiier 
56 Indian Chilaren Tales— Busk 
79 A Little New Kngland Viking — Baker 

81 Story of D&Soto— Hatfield 

82 Story of Daniel Boore — Rtiier 

83 Story of Printing— iT/tOz*^ 

84 Story of David Crockett— ^^i7(?r 

85 Story of Patrick YL^nxy— Little field 

86 American Inventors— I (Whitney and 

Fulton) — Paris 

87 American Inventors — II (Morse and Kdi- 

son) — Fans 

88 American Naval Heroes (Jones, Perry, 

Farragut) — Bush 

89 Fremont and Kit Carson— J7idd 

178 vStory of Ivcxington find Bunker Hilt. 
182 Story of Joan of Arc — McFee 
Literature 

90 Selections from Longfellow— I 

91 Story of Eugene Field— il/cCa^^ 

195 Night before Christmas and OLher 
Christmas Poems and Stories. 

201 Alice's First Adventures in Wonder- 

land—Carre// 

202 Alice's Further Adventures in Wonder- 

land — Carroll 
207 Famous Artists II— Rej'nolds— Murillo 
III Water Babies (Abridged)— A'i'^^i/^' 
35 Goody Two-Shoes 
103 Stories from the Old Testament— il/rT^^^ 

FIFTH YEAR 
Nature 

92 Animal Life in the Sea — McFee 

93 Story of Silk — Brown 

94 Story of Sugar — Reiter 

96 What We Drink (Tea, Coffee and Cocoa) 
139 Peeps into Bird Nooks, II — McFee 

210 Snowdrops and Crocuses — Mann 

History and Biograpliy 
16 Explorations of the Northwest 
80 Story of the Cabots — McBride 

97 Story of the Norsemen — Hanson 

98 Story of Nathan YLaXe-McCabe 

99 Story of Jefferson — McCabe 
100 Story of U-yani-McFee 

loi Story of Robert E. hte—Mc/Cafie 

105 Story of Canada— Z>o7/^/aj 

106 Story of Mexico — McCabe 

107 Story of Robert LouisStevenson — Bush 
141 Story of Grant — McKane 

144 Story of Steam — McCabe 

145 Story of McKinley — McBride 

179 Story of the Flag — Baker 

190 Story of Father Hennepin — McBride 

191 Story of LaSalle — McBride 

185 Story of the First Crusade— i»/^arf 

217 Story of Florence Nightingale— il/c/>^ 

218 Story of Peter Cooper — McFee 
no Story of Hawthorne— il/t:/^?*? 
232 Story of Shakespeare 
Literature 

8 King of the Golden River — Rtiskin 

9 The Golden Touch — Hawthorne 

108 History in Verse (Sheridan's Ride, In- 

dependence Bell, etc.) 

180 Story of Aladdin andof hXxYiaha-Lewis 
183 A Dog of Flanders— Z)(f la Ramee 



184 The Nurnberg Stove— i?e la Ramee 
i86 Heroes from King Av\.h.\iv—Grames 
194 Whittier's Poems. Selected. 

199 Jackanapes — Ewing 

200 The Child of \5r\nno—De la Ramee 
208 Heroes of Asgard- Selections— A'<?c/;j>' 
212 Stories from Robin Wood.— Biish 

234 Poems Worth Knowing— Book II- Inter- 
mediate 

SIXTH YEAR 
NatUi? 
109 Gifts of the I-*"orest (Rubber, Cinchona, 

Resin, tlz.)—McFce 
Geography 

114 Great European Cities T (London and 

Paris) — BuD^ 

115 Great European Cities— 1' (Rome and 

Berlin) — Busn 

i58 Great European Citi^ — III (.St. Peters- 
burg and Constauiiuople) — Bush 

History and Biography 

116 Old English"Heroes (Alfred, Richard the 

Lion-Heaited, The Black Prince) 

117 Later English Heroes (Cromwell, Well- 

ington, Gladstone) — Bush 
160 Heroes of the Revolution— 7"; n/; a- w/ 
163 Stories of Courage— i?«j// 

187 Lives of Webster and Clay - Tiisiiam 

188 Story of Napoleon — Bush 

189 Stories of Heroism — Bush 

197 Story of Lafayette— ^//i/j 

198 Story of Roger WWWams— Leigh to 11 
209 Lewis and Clark Expedition— ///'rwrfow 
219 Story of Iowa — McFee 

224 Story of William 'Veil— Hallock 
Literature 

10 The Snow Image— Hawthorne 

11 Rip Van Winkle— /r^^;/^ 

12 Legend of Sleepy Hollow— //z'zw?- 
22 Rab and His Friends — Bro7C}i 

24 Three Golden Apples— Ha7e>tho) ne 

25 The Miraculous Pitcher— /I'aw tltomc 

26 The Minotaur — Hawthorne 

119 Bryant's Thanatopsis and Other Poems 

120 Selections from Longfellow— II 

121 Selections from Holmes 

122 The Pied Piper of Hamelin— 57 07<:';(z'//.o- 

161 The Great Carbuncle, Mr. Higgin- 

botham's Catastrophe, Snowflakes— 
Hawthorne 

162 The Pygmies— Hawthorne 

222 Kingsley's Greek Heroes— Pait I. The 

Story of Perseus 

223 Kingsley's Greek Heroes— Part II. The 

Story of Theseus 

225 Tennyson's Poems— For various grades 
229 Responsive Bible Readings— Z^?/^'r 

SEVENTH YEAR 
Literature 

13 Courtship of Miles Standish 

14 Evangeline — Longfellow 

15 Snow Bound— IVhit tier 

20 The Great Stone Vaee—Hatv theme 

123 Selections from Wordsworth 

124 Selections from Shelley and Keats 

125 Selections from Merchant of Venice 
147 Story of King Arthur as told by Tc-iiny- 

soix—Hallock 

Continued on next pUge 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATU 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



149 Man Withotit a Conutry, The— Hale 

192 Story of Jean Valjean. 

IQ3 Selections from ilie Sketch Book. 

196 The Gray Champion— //</7r///<>; //<" 

213 Poems of Thomas ]Moore — Selected 

210 I^amb's Tales from vSliakespcare- vSelect- 
ed 

231 The Oregon Trail(Coudensed from Park- 
man ) 

238 tvamb's Adventures of Ulysses — Part I 

239 lyamb's Adventures of Ulysses— Part II 

EIGHTH YEAR 

Literature 

17 P^noch Ardeu 



Tennyson 
S Vision of Sir Launfal — LorvfU 
9 Cotter's Saturday Night— ^7<»«i 




014 752 514 P 



23 The Deserted ^'\\\a.%e— Goldsmith 

126 Rime of the Ancient Mariner 

127 Gray's P^legy and Other Poems 

128 Speeches of Lincoln 

129 Selections from Julius Csesar 

130 Selections from Henr\' theKighth 

131 Selections from Macbeth 
Price 5 Cents Each. Postage, 1 Cent per copy extra. Order by Number. 

Twelve or more copies sent prepaid at 60 cents per dozen or $5 CO per hundred. 



142 Scoti 

154 Scot 

143 Built 

Loi 
148 Hora 

150 Bunker Hill Adilress — Selections from 

the Adams and Jefferson Oration — 
Webster 

151 Gold Bug, The—Poe 

153 Prisoner of Ciiillon and Other Poems— 
By ton 

155 Rhoecus and Other Poems- -Lowell 

156 Edgar Allan Poe — Biography and Se- 

lected Poems— 7./;/;^ 
158 Washington's Farewell Address and 
Other I'apers 

169 Abram Joseph Rj-an — Biography and 
Selected Poems— .Sw/j7// 

170 PaulH. Hayne— Biograph}' and Selected 
Poems — Link 

215 Life of Samuel Johnson — Macanlav 
221 Sir Roger de Covt-r'.y Papers-. J </<//.w;/ 
237 Lay of the I,ast Minstrel— .SVrf*//'. Intro- 
duction and Canlo I 



Annotated Classics and Supplementary Readers 

In addition to the Five-Cent books given above the Instructor Series includes the 
following titles. Most of these are carefully edited bj' capable teachers of Fnglish, 
Avilh Introduction, Notes and Outlines for Study, as noted. Tliey are tlioroughly 
adapted for class use and study as needed in various grades. Prices after each book. 



250 Evangeline. Longfellow. With bio- 
graphical sketch, historical introduc- 
tion, oral and written exercises and 
n o tes 1 Oc 

251 Courtship of Miles Standish. Longfel- 
low. With Introduction and Notes. 10c 

252 Vision of Sir Launfal. I,owell. Biograph- 
ical sketch, introduction, notes, ques- 
tions and outlines for study 10c 

253 Enoch Arden. Tennyson. Biographi- 
cal sketch, introduction, explanatory 
notes, outlines for stiidv and questions 
". 10c 

254 Great Stone Face. Hawthorne. Bio- 
graphical sketch, introduction, notes, 
questions and outlines for study lOc 

354 Cricket on the Hearth. Chas. Dickens. 
Complete 10c 

255 Browning's Poems. Selected poems 
with notes and outlines lor studj'. . . 10c 

256 Wordsworth's Poems. Selected poems 
with introduction, notes and outlines 
for study 10c 

257 Sohrab and Rustum. Arnold. With in- 
troduction, notes and outlines for 
study 10c 

2sS The Children's Poet. -^ study of Long- 
fellow's poetry for children of the pri- 



mary grades, with explanations, lan- 
guage exercises, outlines, written an<l 
oral work, witli selected i)oenis. By 
Lillie Paris, Ohio Teachers College', 
Athens, Ohio lOc 

259 A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens. 
Complete iOc 

260 Familiar Legends. Inez N. McFee. A 
book of old tales retold for young 
people lOc 

261 5ome Water Birds. Inez N. McFee. 
Description, habits, and stories of, for 
Fourth to Sixth grades 10c 

350 Hiawatha. Longfellow. With intro- 
duction and notes 15c 

332 Milton's riinor Poems. Kdited by Cy- 
rus I-auron Hooper. Biographical 
sketch and introduction, with e.xplana- 
torj' notes and questions forstudy; criti- 
cal comments aiul pronouncing vocab- 
ulary of proper names 15c 

353 Silas Marner. Fallot. Biographical 
sketch, numerous notes, questions for 
study, critical comments and bibliog- 
raphy, by Pliram R. Wilson, State 
Normal College, Athens, O. 230 pages. 

Paper 20c 

In cloth binding 30c 



Publislied Jointly by 



F. A. OWEN CO. Dansville, N. Y. 
HALL A McCREARV, Chicago, III. 



